At the Documentary
Filmmakers Meet and Greet on Wednesday, April 30,
filmmakers had the opportunity to promote their
projects, as well as enjoy one of the best benefits
of the Tribeca Film Festival.

Edward Tyndal's Deconfliction

“At
the smaller festivals, you don’t see the business
side of the independent film world,” said
Edward Tyndall, a filmmaker from North Carolina.
One of the hallmarks of Tribeca is the accessibility
of film buyers and distributors. “It gives
you a chance to advance your longer-term goals,
and open up doors,” said Tyndall, who is at
Tribeca for the first time. His short film, Deconfliction,
is screening at the festival, and tells the story
of a transsexual who struggles to come to terms
with his gender identity, and in the process, begins
selling his collection of Cold War artifacts to
fund his sex-reassignment surgery. Although Tyndall
has participated in various smaller festivals, Deconfliction
is his first film at Tribeca. Although Tyndall is
more concentrated on portraiture-style films, he
enjoyed other documentaries currently screening
at Tribeca, including War Child, the story
of a Sudanese child soldier turned hip-hop artist,
and Secrecy, a fascinating look into government
secrets.

Mark Street's Hidden
in Plain Sight

Mark Street is also
showing at Tribeca for the first time. He is a filmmaking
veteran, and has competed in the NY Underground,
Sundance, Venice, San Francisco International, and
Toronto Film Festivals, as well as many others.
His film showcased at Tribeca this year is called
Hidden in Plain Sight. It’s a look
at urban lives in Hanoi, Dakar, Marseille, and Santiago
(Chile). Street calls it “a testament to standing
on street corners and observing city life.”

Joel Schlemowitz' Teslamania

Experimental film
is a big part of the Tribeca Festival. Filmmaker
Joel Schlemowitz is screening his short film Teslamania
in the “Sparks of Brilliance” category,
for underground or experimental films. It documents
a Nikola Tesla coil performance at Collective Unconscious,
and features time-lapse, double exposures, and refracted
images. Because of the industry contacts available
at Tribeca, Schlemowitz has already scored a DVD
distribution deal for his film.

Ali Talib's Lost Girl

Lost Girl is
another short documentary that has already been
picked up by a distributor. Directed by Ali Taleb
and produced by New Yorker Aaron Raskin, Lost
Girl is the story of an Iraqi refugee surviving
as a prostitute in Jordan. The film is a practical
and candid look at the young woman and her view
of survival. Lost Girl has been picked
by Arabic television network Al-Hurra, and will
be packaged with 5 other short films for Arabic
TV viewers. The TV deal will be “good exposure,”
says Raskin.

For independent
filmmakers, finding an audience for their films
is the most difficult part of what they do. Part
of what makes Tribeca Film Festival special is its
proximity to not only to industry contacts that
can help their films be seen on a wider scale, but
also its ability is to bring these films to the
cinephiles of New York City, where we eagerly await
them each year.